Hacker attacks are growing at a faster rate than the Internet, says Rob Clyde, CTO of Symantec. "The growth of the Internet alone is not an adequate explanation of this growth of security threats," says Clyde, who believes that "one of the primary reasons for the exponential growth is the more than 30 000 hacker-oriented Web sites".
"Essentially, we have seen the democratisation of hacking." Clyde believes that the more complex threats faced by corporate networks are the result of hacker co-operation. "In the past, attackers needed motive, opportunity and skill ... now they no longer need to have that third element."
Managing this onslaught, says Clyde, is a "risk management game. Companies have to balance the cost of exposure. As network perimeters start disappearing and becoming fuzzy, managing security is becoming increasingly complex."
Clyde notes that companies have to weigh the usability of their networks against the potential threat posed by opening sections of their systems to the world.
"Symantec is bringing to market integrated products that solve many of the problems associated with security management." Clyde says the company is already in the process of rolling out network security tools for both server and client systems that integrate all of the current Symantec tools into single offerings.
Among these are the gateway products that include firewall, intrusion detection and anti-virus tools. Using a browser-based configuration tool, says Clyde, network security services can be centrally managed from any location.
Symantec has also released a client-side version of its integrated suite and Clyde says the server version of the product will be available soon.
But Clyde is the most excited about the new gateway security device that the company has just released overseas and which is expected to be available in SA in June. The gateway appliance includes a full range of Symantec security tools and is built on a hardened Linux kernel.
"What makes this device different to all the others is that we have put all of our security in a box and integrated it at a driver level." The appliance can be remotely administered using a browser interface and includes options for including VPN capabilities.
Clyde says the major virus trend for the coming months and years are the blended-threat worms such as Nimda. "Hackers are sharing information and the new breed of attacks are standing on the shoulders of other attacks." To counteract these threats, particularly in a world increasingly using wireless technology, says Clyde, centrally managing desktops, whether on mobile devices or on desks, is the critical factor in success.
In the months and years ahead, says Clyde, companies need to become more proactive about internal threats. He adds that speed will also become an issue in the security industry in the next few years.
According to Clyde, it is going to become increasingly important to manage gigabit speeds at the gateway level which will increase the demand for standalone network appliances.
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